Chief Financial Officer of Huawei, Meng Wanzhou, on the way to the court
The claims made by Huawei’s chief financial officer Meng Wanzhou’s lawyers that information pertaining to her phone was sent to the U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) by a retired Canadian police officer, currently living in Macau, have no grounds and should be rejected, a Canadian justice department lawyer told an extradition hearing Friday [Macau time].
The retired officer, Ben Chang, was a former staff sergeant at the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP). He is currently living in Macau and serving as an assistant vice-president for security at Galaxy Casino in Macau, according to the South China Morning Post.
“There is no evidential basis to reach such a conclusion,” Canadian Justice Department lawyer John Gibb-Carsley told Associate Chief Justice Heather Holmes at the hearing.
Gibb-Carsley emphasized testimony made earlier by RCMP information technologist Jayson Allen, who scouted Chang’s outgoing emails. Allen confirmed he did not find any emails from Chang to the FBI on or after December 4, 2018, which is the day another RCMP officer opened and photographed the details of Meng’s devices at the request of the FBI.
Chang hired a lawyer in Macau and refused to testify. He offered an affidavit to the hearing, denying that he had shared any information from Meng’s phone with the FBI.
Holmes raised the issue of Chang’s refusal to testify at the hearing, saying, “he was a senior police officer and … generally, retired police officers testify in relation to cases they were involved with before their retirement and that’s not happening here.”
Meng’s lawyers stated that Chang’s refusal to testify at the hearing brought his affidavit into doubt. The move also solidifies their argument that Meng had fallen victim to the conspiracy between the Canadian police force and the FBI.
On Dec. 1, 2018, authorities in Canada arrested Meng Wanzhou at the Vancouver airport upon the request of the U.S., which has accused Huawei of using a Hong Kong shell company, Skycom, to sell equipment to Iran in violation of U.S. sanctions. She was accused of committing fraud by misleading the HSBC bank about Huawei’s business dealings in Iran.
The U.S. is seeking to extradite her to the U.S. to face a fraud trial. Beijing denounced the arrest, claiming that this is instead a political move plotted to suppress China’s rise.
Meng has remained free on bail and has been residing in Vancouver.
The extradition hearing is likely to come to an end soon, with hearings expected to conclude on May 14. Associate Chief Justice Heather Holmes will then rule on whether to approve the extradition. However, if there are any appeals, proceedings could span for years.
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